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When Bruce Sturdy signed up for a Rogers wireless account for his laptop computer, he didn’t know how much data he would need.

“I’m in my 50s and I didn’t know a megabyte from a hole in the ground,” he says. “My account included 500 MB, which I assumed would be plenty.

“I also assumed that Rogers would notify me if I went over my limit and there would be a nominal fee.”

Everything went well for the first two months. But when Sturdy tried to check his usage, the Rogers website said the information was unavailable.

“I watched a moderate amount of videos over that time,” he says, “and the only indication I had there was a problem was a little blinking mail light last month that said my usage was well over the 500 MB.

“I cancelled my account and received a bill from Rogers for $1,500! I was 6 GB over and Rogers was charging me $240 per GB!”

He asked for help, since no one had mentioned the astronomical overage fee to him when he signed up. The average charge for Rogers’ plans is $10 per GB.

“Doesn’t Rogers have a legal obligation to tell me how much data I have been using while I’m using it?” he asked.

I thought he had a good case, so I sent his complaint to the Rogers’ office of the president. There, he did get some help — but not enough. He also got some bad news about his next bill.

Rogers said my bill was going to be reduced from $1,500 to around $800, but I would be billed ANOTHER $1,000 in the next billing cycle. Luckily, I could be enrolled in a variable rate plan so that $1,000 would be covered by the plan rate.

What apparently happened was when I found out that my account was over, I went on MyRogers and picked a variable rate plan. Unfortunately, I picked a plan not even Warren Buffett could afford!

I picked a Canada-US roaming plan that listed a charge of 25 cents a MB for overage. Not being great at math, I didn’t realize I was really paying $250 a GB.

I asked the Rogers fellow why $250 a GB wasn’t listed on the plan page and his weak defence was that measuring by MB was the industry standard. I suspect it was because no sane person would ever pay $250 a GB.

What really bothers me is that I enrolled in this plan because I WAS PROMPTED BY THE ROGERS SOFTWARE. When I checked my account, I got a popup saying my account was over and would I like to change to this, and beneath the roaming plan was listed.

I assumed that Rogers was trying to help me by giving me a variable rate plan, so I signed on without giving it much thought. As it turns out, the popup was really about filling Rogers coffers and I will be suffering for it for some time to come.

In my view, telecom companies must make an effort to educate customers. What is an MB or a GB? Describe it in familar terms, such as the number of TV programs you can watch. People need help choosing the right plan.

“He followed all the right steps and his issues are quite obviously not resolved,” Walker said.

When I heard from Sturdy again, he was thrilled.

Wow, Ellen, you made the pit bull rollover, it’s unbelievable!

It was only two short weeks ago that a Rogers rep was calling me at 6:30 a.m. to “remind” me my bill was coming due in two weeks!

Now the Ombudsman has zeroed my entire bill! Not only that, she apologized profusely because no one contacted me when my overage began.

She said it was a complete breakdown in communication. She also wondered aloud why the fellow in the President’s office had decided I still owed $900, even though an obvious mistake had been made.

Going forward I will be on a graduated Rogers plan that I should have been on in the first place.

I can’t thank you enough, Ellen. You are a real miracle worker and this is a tremendous load off my shoulders.

I’ve learned my lesson. In the future, I will read every plan I sign on to CAREFULLY before I click.

What a difference a fresh pair of eyes makes in reviewing a complaint.

Rogers was smart to appoint an ombudsman two years ago and to choose a replacement who came from the front lines.

Now if only Bell could do the same thing.

SAVE THE DATE: I’m doing my Financial Basics Workshop on Tuesday, June 19, 5.30 to 9.30 p.m. at Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education, 297 Victoria St., 7th floor, Peter Bronfman Room. You don’t need to register, but you can just show up. You’ll get a great workbook to take home with you.

I have been with Rogers for many years. I now use all of their services including Internet, home phone, wireless and cable.

I have only had one legit complain about one apparently undertrained staff member recently, though I have made complaints that I ended up being wrong about. Their service has been fantastic. Their service rep.s have been patient and very informative to me.

I am getting to be a old dinosaur and Rogers staff are helping me move along in this ever faster moving pace of an electronic world. I am a happy customer of Rogers, but all I am able to read about on the internet is about the unhappy customers.

Let’s hear from some of the many resolutions to customers’ problems that the Rogers people overcome on a daily basis. How fast their repair service is. How easy they make it to tranfer to a new phone.

I look at Rogers as a quality company that does, in fact, treat their customers very well. In the mentioned matter, it was the customer who made most of the mistakes and Rogers ended up eating the costs of his inept mistakes.

I am one of those people who could do some of the things this customer did, but realizing that, I do the research and ask the questions so such does not happen to me. But I feel that if I did make a mistake with Rogers, I would own up to it and, if possible, make a deal with them.

In the past, when I made a mistake and asked them to do something about it, they always provided a 100% resolution in my favour and I have never called the President’s office.

Note: At present, I am a satisfied Rogers customer.

My son has had similar results with Bell in the past couple of years, although I would never knowingly deal with a company that has a 42.58% late payment charge as they do.

But knowing there are people who can accomplish the resolutions you are able to do makes me feel even safer, as my error factor appears to be increasing.

Very recently, I took a trip to Italy (for my honeymoon). I purchased a data pack (100MB for $100).

I then proceeded to use my phone, but not very often. I mostly kept it on airplane mode.

I was there for 2 weeks and on the second week, I took it off airplane mode (because my husband was expecting emails from his new employer regarding his new job).

With the last data pack I purchased, when I went to Jamaica, I received a text message when I went over. I purchased another pack and stopped using my phone as often.

This time, I never received a notice. My phone bill, which is usually $75 a month (and which I thought would be around $195) is now a whopping $951.

They say I went over my data pack by 600 MB. They say that with the pack I bought (and of this I was certainly not informed), I would not receive a notice when I went over. I would have to check my usage via the texting of a mysterious number that no one gave me.

So, they choose to screw over their customers willfully. Nice!

I have a business account and am now waiting to hear back from the Office of the President (I chose to escalate after they offered me a discount of $325, which she claimed was 50%. Last I checked, 50% of $951 was $475.50.)

My only bit of leverage is that my office currently has two other Rogers cellphone accounts. I can switch to another provider, and will if this is not resolved.

I actually feel sick that they would be completely unwilling to help me when I’ve been a customer of Rogers for over a decade and have given then well over $10,000 during that time.

If I don’t get things resolved with the Office of the President, I will contact the Ombudsman. Hopefully it won’t get to that, though.